Coughlin On Morning Practice

Our friend Bobby Blackjack from Talking Football LIVE sent this our way, the transcript of Tom Coughlin’s press conference from the morning mini-camp practice:

Seventy-five – 80 degrees, no humidity – perfect day, beautiful grass, and sunshine, all of your friends are out here. It couldn’t be better; couldn’t be better.

Q: How did the group look?

A: They did all right. One side does okay that means the other side didn’t. And the other side does okay and that means the original side didn’t. So it is back and forth. But there is good enthusiasm. They know what this is. It signifies the end of the offseason. And they want to get it together going into the time off. So they know exactly what they are doing and they have worked hard. And it has been a good offseason for us. So let’s hope we finish strong.

Q: Any setbacks with Jay Alford?

A: Yeah, Jay tweaked his MCL the other day. He tripped, so we are better off just holding him.

Q: Holding him for the next few days?

A: We are holding him.

Q: Re: Zak DeOssie

A: What, are you taking one of my lines.

Q: How would you characterize your feeling on Kenny Phillips availability?

A: He is getting better every day. You just have to have great confidence that he wants it so badly I think he can hopefully overcome anything. He is making steady progress. And we still have the very good circumstance that he does not swell. But his running has increased. He is doing some change of direction a little bit. That is a good thing.

Q: When everyone is done here he is going to have to continue, right?

A: Oh yeah, he has got to build himself right up, yeah.

Q: How do things look back there in the secondary with Antrel Rolle and Deon Grant?

A: They are doing a nice job. You have a couple of guys that are veterans; played in an awful lot of big games, been around the league, understand the game. And fortunately both of those guys – they love to play. They bubble, they talk. I think it is going to help.

Q: What has impressed you the most about Rolle?

A: What I just said. He loves to play, he is bubbly, and he is energetic. He is an athlete. He likes to do all of those kinds of things. When practice is over he is liable to show you that he can throw the ball 70 yards. He does all kind of stuff like that. He is a nice addition. He has good energy and an aggressive personality.

Q: Has he lobbied you to run the wildcat?

A: Since day one, yes.

Q: What about Clint Sintim? We didn’t see much from his first year.

A: Our expectations are very high for Clint. We are all pulling for him that this will be a big year for him.

Q: Again, we didn’t see much from him last year.

A: We drafted him and we thought very, very highly of him. We still do. He had his rookie year. A rookie year is a rookie year. It is different – everyone has a kind of a different experience. So I think that after that he understands that. He is much more serious about what he is doing right now.

Q: Do you see the same ………..

A: What I have seen all winter.

Q: A guy with not a lot of playing time last year – he is working with the first team. I know that isn’t a big deal but is that because there is nobody else?

A: No, no. Again, as I said, the expectations are high.

Q: Do you build a foundation for the season during days like this at mini camp?

A: I think you are always building. That is why we are doing it. That is what we are here for. That is what the OTA’s are all about. That is what the practices are all about. It is a game about team. It is about being together. It is about communicating. It is about being on the field with each other. It is about making the corrections. You just hope that you carry it over. That is always the thing in our game. There are a few weeks off for these guys. And I’m going to talk to them – not tonight but tomorrow night – about training camp and how it is put together and how important it is and so on and so forth and how important this period of conditioning and staying with the conditioning and strength program and being ready to go, and to have none of the reasons, if you will, for a guy missing a practice –“I strained this, I did that.” Let’s get ourselves ready. It is not a long period. It is all condensed into really a two-week – a difficult two weeks – but nevertheless a two-week period. And that is what our training camp is.

Q: From the defensive standpoint, what have you seen in the OTA’s and what do you hope to see in this mini camp?

A: We are getting people to work together who haven’t worked together. The two safeties we have talked about – Aaron Ross back on the field, and now a bunch of young guys working them in. Taking the rookies and getting them integrated into what we are doing – using a lot of different combinations of personnel. So making progress with our system implemented by a new coordinator, Perry Fewell. And the response to the guys has been good.

Q: RE: Andre Brown

A: He is getting there. He does have, occasionally, a little bit of a setback. But he has worked his way through a lot of it.

Q: Tom, if I understand correctly, you had perfect attendance this morning. How satisfying is that?

A: We’ve had it most of the time, so it’s always been that way. Perfect attendance at a mandatory camp? It is expected.

Q: You said that you could go either way with training camp – but now that it is official – are you happy to be getting away?

A: I like that part of it. I do. I believe this team is better going away and putting it all together from that standpoint.

Q: Your feeling about having 20,000 fans in the new stadium this afternoon?

A: I think it will perk them up but I hope they understand that we still don’t have pads on here. We have objectives; we have some goals; we have some things that we have to do. And that is the way we are going to approach it. They will be excited. They say between 20,000 and 30,000. That will be interesting.